Electrostatic breakdown (ESD) often happens in a display panel manufacturing process due to a buildup of static electricity, in which a sudden flow of electricity is generated when charges are transferring through tiny wires or points where the wires cross. ESD may cause severe damage to electronic devices.
With demand for higher PPI (Pixel per Inch), the size of pixels in the display panel, the line width of metal wires, as well as the gap between adjacent metal wires become smaller and smaller, and the adjacent metal wires may be even in contact each other.
In existing technologies, antistatic devices are formed by one or more thin film transistors (TFTs) or leads disposed in a display panel. To release the static electricity from the display panel, different leads in the antistatic devices are used as inputs and outputs of the static electricity, such that the static electricity may be exported or gradually decayed along the leads. However, before forming the antistatic devices, damage to wires caused by the accumulation of the static electricity is often inevitable.
The disclosed array substrate and related fabrication techniques, and display panel including the array substrate are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.